A Long Talk With ‘Women Talking’

For the past few days, I’ve seen the Women Talking team everywhere: Mingling at a welcome brunch deep in the mountains, rushing down Colorado Avenue on the way to their next thing, taking their seats for the Empire of Light premiere. They travel in a pack, often with big smiles and bigger laughs. And why wouldn’t they? Sarah Polley’s powerful new film, swiftly met with raves after its premiere here in Telluride, has been the talk of the festival, and represents creative highs for everyone from its Oscar-nominated writer-director to its peerless ensemble. None of them, even legendary producer-star Frances McDormand, have had an experience like this before. The film is fully made by and centered on women, and has been unveiled to the world with the team behind it united as a collective, a group of artists rightly proud of what they’ve done.

Adapted from the Miriam Toews novel, Women Talking is set in a remote, present-day Mennonite colony operating under an archaic patriarchal system. The story’s catalyst arrives as young Autje (Kate Hallett) catches one man brutally attacking a woman; the women of the colony are finally awoken to the brutal violence and cruelty they’ve been subjected to throughout their lives, that they’d been led to believe were random acts of God. And so now, they must gather and talk about it, in an isolated hayloft—to decide whether to stand their ground and fight the men who’ve so wronged them, or leave together toward the great unknown. Out of this setup, which Polley renders with rich and surprising cinematic intensity, characters prove distinctive in their beliefs, faith, and dreams—from Jessie Buckley’s cynical Mariche to Claire Foy’s ferocious Salome to Rooney Mara’s measured Ona. A cathartic conversation emerges, about asserting one’s personhood (specifically, womanhood) while working methodically toward rousing collective action, with hope for a better tomorrow.

As I sat with the Women Talking team on a few benches under a tent, just outside the Werner Herzog theater on a warm Sunday afternoon, I was struck by how much our discussion mirrored what we see in the film: The laughs shared between these collaborators, the tears shed at one point. There was even a lone man (disclosure: this writer) listening to and recording what they have to say. (In the film, it’s Ben Whishaw’s sensitive ally, August, who takes the meeting’s minutes.) Indeed, entering this new territory for all of these women has translated to a movie, and a conversation, like we’ve never seen.

Vanity Fair: Watching the movie, it felt like something I’d never seen before. I imagine it felt like that making it as well. Jessie, to start, can you speak to that and whether it felt so new?

Jessie Buckley: I’ve never been on a set where I get to not just play, but to experience, with nine extraordinary women. Explore what that relationship means between us in a world, and how we can move forward together—not just on our own, but with people that we love, and move out of the place we’re in. We don’t know what we might find within ourselves and between each other. I’ve never read a script like that, yeah, where I can explore the complex, rich, knotty, difficult, beautiful parts of female friendship like that, and actually use it as catharsis, as something to understand between each other and from each other.

Frances, you’ve made quite a few films, and in this case of course had more of a behind-the-scenes role. What about this felt special and unique for you?

Frances McDormand: I’m 65. I’m the oldest.

Sheila McCarthy: [Raises hand] 66.

McDormand: Damn it! [Laughs] Well, we have four or maybe even five generations— decades—of experience here. That’s a huge part of it. I’ve been in ensemble films before. I’ve never been in ensemble films where it was mostly women, but I’ve always abhorred “women films” where they end up singing into a hairbrush or wooden spoon, because I don’t do that with my friends. We actually talk about science and the economy and things of that nature. The exciting thing that happened in the development was, our producing partner Dede [Gardner] and I would often use sports-movie metaphors with Sarah. “Where’s the big triumph?” She kind of went, “I don’t think women’s stories are told that way.” So then, “What’s the alternative?” This movie is the alternative. You haven’t seen it before because it hasn’t been explored. We were just having a whole long conversation about films that were seen in the festival that have main female protagonists but are still trapped in the old paradigms of storytelling. It’s unknown territory and we’re out there. We’re swimming in it along with you and everybody else.